Love Hurts
by shywr1ter
Summary: An ML, S1 style response to the Challenge on Raising Hell.  The Prompt was 'I understand with love comes pain, but why did I have to love so much.'  Max learns a life lesson.


**Disclaimer: **Don't own 'em; no profits made.

** A_/N:_**_ A response to the Challenge on Raising Hell – the Prompt was ""I understand with love comes pain, but why did I have to love so much?" Okay, so this is pretty lame, but a) I can't pass up a challenge, and b) the responses I've seen so far, while certainly well done, were all so serious – and all so M/A. And I figured something had to be done about it._

_**LOVE HURTS**__  
_

_"I understand with love comes pain, but why did I have to love so much?"_

They had been like this before, back when things were still new between them, Logan at her side as she lay stretched out, weakened and wracked with the tremors of her seizure, leaning over her with concern in his eyes as he stroked her forehead, clearly frustrated with his inability to know how to help her.

But this time it was her couch, not his, and as he leaned over to stroke her forehead, a poorly disguised, tiny smile played along his lips. And this time they weren't alone: Original Cindy stood behind the couch with her arms folded, looking vindicated and not very sympathetic at all.

"Ooooohhh..." Max groaned again.

"Here, Max, c'mon. This will help..." Logan lifted a small paper bag he'd brought in with him and pulled out a bottle of about the pinkest, nastiest looking stuff Max had ever seen. Inexplicably, it made the pain worse as her stomach lurched...

"What is it?" She managed, looking at it askance, as if she feared that Logan might suddenly pick the moment to poison her.

"Some foul-tasting stuff that will make you feel a lot better. I promise." As he shook the bottle then opened it, pouring about two fingers' worth into the little plastic shot glass that came with it, he looked up at Original Cindy to ask, "how did this happen?"

The woman smirked. "Best I can tell, it's a weird, souped-up Manticore version of what happens to about every woman on the planet at one time or another. Or another. And another..."

Logan looked puzzled. "Not ... going into Heat? That doesn't happen to any other women _I_ know, and besides..." he paused to rub Max's tummy gently as she moaned once more, and handed her the little cup of pink, "she's never gotten sick with it before. And she was really sure her Heat wasn't due for another three or four days."

"Mmm-hmm," Original Cindy nodded, sagely, "and you, being a man of the world, you never ran up on women a few days before that magic_ time,_ who made the mistake of making a run to the grocery at _just_ the right moment...?"

Logan looked puzzled for a long moment, the silence punctuated by Max's sudden gasp in response to the pink liquid she just barely managed to get down. "Logan, if you want me dead, just shoot me," she mourned. Her words were ignored as it dawned on him...

"Like ... a chocolate attack? Or ice cream?"

Cindy nodded, her stance communicating her reaction to the thought of Max falling prey to such a _normal_ affliction – in such a big way. "Although in her case it was Max discovering chocolate covered cherries for the first time. _And_ making the mistake of trying one in the parking lot, before she left the store, _and _having about forty five bucks in cash..."

Understanding dawned on Logan as he looked back to the ailing transgenic. "Max ... you didn't..." he looked at her, suddenly looking more like disapproving parent than lover.

"Logan, they were so _good_," Max defended herself weakly. "How was I supposed to know that such good food could turn on you? And even if it happens to other people..." She didn't finish the thought, knowing it was obvious to the other two. "It's so not fair ... I _love_ those things..."

"You can love them in smaller doses, Max." Logan watched as the pretty face was pulled into a pout, more for effect than anything, and he guessed, "it's already helping a little?"

She nodded, and he smiled softly, tenderly tracing her hair back from her brow, then put the bottle on the table beside her. "You can take some more of this in three or four hours, if your stomach's still upset."

"I'm more upset that chocolate would turn on me," she grumbled, settling in a little more comfortably, unsure if it was the pink stuff he'd brought or Logan's attentions, but either way, relaxing as she started to feel better.

"Just breaks your heart to learn the facts of life, don't it, Boo?" Cindy shook her head., and crossed the room to pick up her jacket. "Logan, looks as if you have things in hand, which is my cue to see what's on at Crash. And while I'm gone, you might tell sister-girl here it's not a bad idea to _listen _to Original Cindy next time when she tells her that after the first sixteen boxes of chocolate covered cherries, it's time to slow down. "

"I'll see what I can do," Logan grinned. "Thanks, Cindy."

"Take care of my girl. _Your_ girl," she amended, and disappeared, still grinning.

"It's so not fair," Max muttered again.

"Love hurts, Max," Logan cocked his head, considering her. "Anything I can get you?"

"No..." she settled a little deeper into the couch, the nasty stuff Logan brought her still working to ease her discomfort. "But you can do me a favor and polish off that last box of cherries..."

"No, thanks," he chuckled..

"You sure?" she asked. When he nodded, she was quiet for a moment, then shrugged. After another moment, she looked up to him with a sweet, hopeful smile. "Then ... maybe you could bring me just one more?"

_**xxxxxxxx**_

_All comments, including groans and complaints, welcome!  
_


End file.
